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Vote Dennis Kucinich.
I'm all for humor, and for messing up Republicans, as people are suggesting, but why not convert frustration over how the (state & nat'l) Dems have loused up our primary by voting for Dennis Kucinich? I just had a second date with him (along with 500 or more, this time), and then had to hear NPR, as I drove back to the office, say the only way people voting in the Democratic primary in Michigan can vote "against Hillary" is to vote for "Uncommitted." Fie on NPR! And *shame* on them, as ostensibly public media people, not even mentioning the name of the one Democrat actually campaigning in the state---who also happens to be the only one we could decidedly count on, among other things, to protect public access to media.
Don't be telling me he's not a major candidate. He's not a major candidate, at this point, only if/because people believe the media telling us he's not a major candidate, suggesting that savvy people know it's gotta be one of 3, or maybe 2. After Iowa they wanted to say it was pretty much only 1! And this time you'd be harder pressed (than with, say, Nader a few years ago in the general election) to make a case that voting for a long shot here messes up anything else.
Seems to me by far most people I know who've done one of those candidate match questionnaires come up with Dennis at the top, or at least near it. If that's you, and you're in Michigan, why not vote for him tomorrow? If there's ever been a time we have the luxury of voting on principle and sending a message, this is it.
Yes, I know it's almost certainly not going to be a very resounding message. But let me put you in mind of one of my favorite political writers, Dr. Seuss, and of Horton the elephant, and of the Whos on that dust speck, and how those little people were trying to make a noise. And then they find one little Who who hadn't been peeping up, and they hold that little one up to the firmament, and after (my favorite moment as a kid, in which) the little Who ponders aloud "Shall I give a yip or a yap?", that little one adds that little voice and it means something.
Sometimes you have to pretend it could mean something. You just have to. Most ya'll don't know this, but I'm a far sight more cynical than almost the whole lot of ya. I really am. But I'm gonna go do this thing tomorrow, on principle, and I really hope you'll consider doing it too. If you don't have something else firmly in mind, and it's all the same to you, and ---
Look, I'll give you a dollar if you'll go vote Dennis. On your honor, if you do, tomorrow in Michigan, and you weren't gonna anyway, one dollar U.S. currency will be coming to you, if you just say the word. Or, if you'd prefer, I'll send you a postcard, handpicked for your sweet Dennis-voting-for self. Just email me your address at fflo at livejournal.com.
He's not just the candidate for peace. He's the candidate for the people, vs. corporate power and the continuing consolidation of wealth into fewer hands. He's the candidate for the queers, too, you queers and queer advocates. He's the candidate for universal health care. He's the candidate for real, broad civil rights, for privacy rights, and for internet neutrality. For small business and family farms. For alternative energy. For broad access to education, and for the restoration of funding for the arts in schools. For election reform; for media responsibility. And he's the candidate for saving the U.S. from the ignominy we have fallen into internationally (and deserve), and for possibly pulling us back from the path toward a karmic fate we will most assuredly regret, with all there is left of us.
Listen, I don't want to believe the big-money media manipulate us, either. But that's cuz I don't want it to be true. Let's face it: it IS true. So we might as well look it in the face. So they'll laugh off my vote, and the others, if they even note them at all. At least I will have voted for what I believe in. Please, if you agree with what this guy's saying, vote for him. C'mon. That's not crazy. It may well turn out to have been largely pointless in terms of its practical effect on the election, but it's the right thing to do, and even if that doesn't mean anything, I want to pretend, for a day, tomorrow, that it does.
Don't be telling me he's not a major candidate. He's not a major candidate, at this point, only if/because people believe the media telling us he's not a major candidate, suggesting that savvy people know it's gotta be one of 3, or maybe 2. After Iowa they wanted to say it was pretty much only 1! And this time you'd be harder pressed (than with, say, Nader a few years ago in the general election) to make a case that voting for a long shot here messes up anything else.
Seems to me by far most people I know who've done one of those candidate match questionnaires come up with Dennis at the top, or at least near it. If that's you, and you're in Michigan, why not vote for him tomorrow? If there's ever been a time we have the luxury of voting on principle and sending a message, this is it.
Yes, I know it's almost certainly not going to be a very resounding message. But let me put you in mind of one of my favorite political writers, Dr. Seuss, and of Horton the elephant, and of the Whos on that dust speck, and how those little people were trying to make a noise. And then they find one little Who who hadn't been peeping up, and they hold that little one up to the firmament, and after (my favorite moment as a kid, in which) the little Who ponders aloud "Shall I give a yip or a yap?", that little one adds that little voice and it means something.
Sometimes you have to pretend it could mean something. You just have to. Most ya'll don't know this, but I'm a far sight more cynical than almost the whole lot of ya. I really am. But I'm gonna go do this thing tomorrow, on principle, and I really hope you'll consider doing it too. If you don't have something else firmly in mind, and it's all the same to you, and ---
Look, I'll give you a dollar if you'll go vote Dennis. On your honor, if you do, tomorrow in Michigan, and you weren't gonna anyway, one dollar U.S. currency will be coming to you, if you just say the word. Or, if you'd prefer, I'll send you a postcard, handpicked for your sweet Dennis-voting-for self. Just email me your address at fflo at livejournal.com.
He's not just the candidate for peace. He's the candidate for the people, vs. corporate power and the continuing consolidation of wealth into fewer hands. He's the candidate for the queers, too, you queers and queer advocates. He's the candidate for universal health care. He's the candidate for real, broad civil rights, for privacy rights, and for internet neutrality. For small business and family farms. For alternative energy. For broad access to education, and for the restoration of funding for the arts in schools. For election reform; for media responsibility. And he's the candidate for saving the U.S. from the ignominy we have fallen into internationally (and deserve), and for possibly pulling us back from the path toward a karmic fate we will most assuredly regret, with all there is left of us.
Listen, I don't want to believe the big-money media manipulate us, either. But that's cuz I don't want it to be true. Let's face it: it IS true. So we might as well look it in the face. So they'll laugh off my vote, and the others, if they even note them at all. At least I will have voted for what I believe in. Please, if you agree with what this guy's saying, vote for him. C'mon. That's not crazy. It may well turn out to have been largely pointless in terms of its practical effect on the election, but it's the right thing to do, and even if that doesn't mean anything, I want to pretend, for a day, tomorrow, that it does.
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I'd vote for him tomorrow if I still lived there.
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i'm about to get disc 2 of the first season of The Wire. shouldn'ta put on the commentary track on one episode on the first disc. i had a cat in my lap after watching the last episode, so, you know, thought i'd see what else was on there. voiceover guy was dripping with appreciation for how very great their whole everything was. major turn-off.
but i love looking at the streets of baltimore, so i'm gonna hang in there with it for a while. and stay away from commentary.
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Yes, do hang in there, because... it's really super-awesome. :)
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i mentioned my objection to i.d. showing this morning and got into a little discussion of it with some woman who thought it a good idea, helping prevent fraud, keeping people (like scary illegal aliens) from cheating us out of officials elected purely by real registered americans with govt-issued i.d.s who play by the rules.
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how was the location? they were saying on npr the turnout expectations were minuscule.
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maybe the tear left a crooked edge, and the feed-in went too sideways.
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but i guess that's the kind of detail from which you can tell how much they care.
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unless they get eaten by the machine, i guess.
but, yeah, scantronish.
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i do think it obnoxious when people, in dismissing him, say "he saw a UFO!" or (as some guys i caught on cable while dogsitting the other day did) reference his wife's tongue piercing, as if that sums up anything salient.
check out this online op ed
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